Western Australia Premier Roger Cook has outlined his government’s priorities for the year ahead, and no mention was made of long promised Equal Opportunity law reform, removal of the WA Gender Recognition Board or abandoned reforms to surrogacy laws.
The premier told Parliament on Tuesday that the government’s top priority was building upon the state’s prosperity, addressing cost of living challenges, creating infrastructure, promoting clean energy, and creating opportunities in education and employment.
“As we all know, this is the final sitting year of the forty-first Parliament of Western Australia. Importantly, this team, this WA Labor government, remains hungrier than ever to continue its work—continuing the work of taking this state forward, building on Western Australia’s hard-earned status as the most successful state in Australia, confronting the challenges of the current global economic cycle and ensuring that we make WA a place that is always—always—fair, prosperous and full of opportunity.” the premier said.
In his detailed address the premier spoke about the government’s efforts to tackle homelessness and housing affordability, the success of the banned drinkers register, overhaul of fire arms laws, new legislation to introduce tougher penalties for assaults on retail works, and improvements to the state’s health system.
The premier acknowledged that 2024 would be the last year of the current government with Western Australians set to go to the polls on 8th March 2025.
Equal opportunity law reform, removal of the Gender Recognition Board and surrogacy updates have been on the government’s to-do list for years
In November 2023 it was suggested that the government planned to delay introducing Equal Opportunity law reforms until after the 2025 election, something that the premier denied – but he also refused to commit to a timeline on the when people could expect progress.
Attorney General John Quigley has previously offered a succession of reasons on why the legislation has been deleyed, including the federal government’s plans for Religious Discrimination laws.
Associated with the updates to the state’s Equal Opportunity laws is a commitment to remove the WA Gender Recognition Board, something the Labor government has been promising to address since 2017.
Labor attempted to update the state’s laws around surrogacy in 2019 but were unable to get the legislation through the Legislate Council. Moves to update the laws were stymied when Conservative Liberal MP Nick Goiran delivered a filibuster speech that clocked up to 24 hours of him arguing against surrogacy.
In 2020, when he was Health Minister, Roger Cook said the party was still committed to reform in this area. Current Health Minister Amber Jade Sanderson made a similar commitment in 2022.
Since the issue was last debated in parliament the government has received an independent review of the Western Australian Human Reproductive Technology Act conducted by Professor Sonia Allen, and the report from a Ministerial Expert Panel that was convened in 2022.
In responding to the report from the Ministerial Panel the government endorsed it’s findings that law reform was needed in this area, but the issue appears to be on the government’s backburner.
Graeme Watson
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